A MASSIVE hunk of space rock is home to precious metals worth so much they could crash our economy. That isn’t about to stop NASA

NASA has set the date for a trip to an asteroid that could be worth “quadrillions” of dollars.

The Discovery Mission will launch in summer 2022, with a planned arrival at the main asteroid belt where the space rock is located expected in 2026 — four years earlier than the agency’s initial plans.

The Sun reports the asteroid, called 16 Psyche, is a massive hunk of precious metals including platinum and gold as well as iron and nickel.

It orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter and is of great scientific interest because it holds clues to one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system — less than 10 million years after the birth of our sun.

But now it’s grabbed the attention of money-hungry entrepreneurs and investors thanks to its stratospheric price tag.

Valued at $A14,000 quadrillion, according to Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the lead scientist on the NASA mission, it is definitely worth more than its weight in gold.

But bringing back an asteroid of this value could completely wipe out our global economy.

Luckily, the space agency is taking the trip for scientific purposes and isn’t planning on conducting any mining — yet...

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service downgraded China's credit ratings on Wednesday for the first time in nearly 30 years, saying it expects the financial strength of the economy will erode in coming years as growth slows and debt continues to rise.

The one-notch downgrade in long-term local and foreign currency issuer ratings, to A1 from Aa3, comes as the Chinese government grapples with the challenges of rising financial risks stemming from years of credit-fueled stimulus.

"The downgrade reflects Moody's expectation that China's financial strength will erode somewhat over the coming years, with economy-wide debt continuing to rise as potential growth slows," the ratings agency said in a statement, changing its outlook for China to stable from negative.

China's Finance Ministry said the downgrade, Moody's first for the country since 1989, overestimated the risks to the economy and was based on "inappropriate methodology".

“Moody’s views that China’s non-financial debt will rise rapidly and the government would continue to maintain growth via stimulus measures are exaggerating difficulties facing the Chinese economy, and underestimating the Chinese government’s ability to deepen supply-side structural reform and appropriately expand aggregate demand,” the ministry said in a statement...

OWON: So, pushing hegemony again, the US Navy needlessly sails within 12 miles of China's new man made Island in the South China Seas. What needless F arrogance! So it just disappears, 'Atomized', what then? Or use the Russian electronics frying weapons. Leave the damn thing as a floating rust bucket, what fun as China then collects it for scrap under Salvage Laws.

A U.S. Navy warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built up by China in the South China Sea, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, the first such challenge to Beijing in the strategic waterway since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the USS Dewey traveled close to the Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbors.

The so-called freedom of navigation operation, which is sure to anger China, comes as Trump is seeking Beijing's cooperation to rein in ally North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

Territorial waters are generally defined by U.N. convention as extending at most 12 nautical miles from a state's coastline.

One U.S. official said it was the first operation near a land feature which was included in a ruling last year against China by an international arbitration court in The Hague. The court invalidated China's claim to sovereignty over large swathes of the South China Sea...

OWON:It's touching to see, when such a tragedy strikes, a Homeless 35 year old was pulling nails out of the faces of children and doing so much to help, not running as the masses did. He has now been offered free 6 months rent for his kindness. As the sites (WHA, OWON) did for Mike, goodness happens.

West Ham's owner and his son have vowed to pay for a homeless man's rent for six months to thank him for helping the victims of the Manchester suicide bombing.

Yesterday rough sleeper Stephen Jones revealed how he pulled nails out of a little girl's face after terrorist Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured 119 when he detonated a nail bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena.

Mr Jones, who had been sleeping nearby, recalled watching in horror as children covered in blood began pouring out of the arena, leaving behind 'lifeless' bodies surrounded by 'hysterical' mother.

Another homeless man, Chris Parker, was begging in the stadium foyer when he heard the explosion. He described in graphic detail cradling a young girl who had been separated from her parents and lost both her legs in the blast.

Now West Ham's co-chairman David Sullivan and his son Dave Jnr have revealed they want to help reward Mr Jones, 35, for his selfless actions - while Mr Parker's estranged mother has come forward to say she wants to be reunited with her hero son...

2.8 million people over 65 will need nursing and social care by 2025 – largely because of a significant rise in dementia-related disability, research finds

The NHS and social care system in the UK is facing a staggering increase in the cost of looking after elderly people within the next few years, according to major new research which shows a 25% increase in those who will need care between 2015 and 2025.

Within eight years, there will be 2.8 million people over 65 needing nursing and social care, unable to cope alone, says the research – largely because of the toll of dementia in a growing elderly population. The research, published by the respected Lancet Public Health medical journal, says cases of disability related to dementia will rise by 40% among people aged 65 to 84, with other forms of disability increasing by about 31%.

The new figures follow a furore over the Conservative manifesto and Theresa May’s U-turn on social care this week. In a bid to keep the costs of care down, the manifesto said those needing care at home would have to pay until they had £100,000 in savings left, including the cost of their home.

After accusations that the Conservatives were imposing a “dementia tax”, May promised a cap on the amount any person would pay for care – although without specifying what the cap would be.

The new analysis will make grim reading for whichever party gains power. “The societal, economic and public health implications of our forecast are substantial,” say the researchers, led by academics from the University of Liverpool and University College London...

OWON: Really? And did he agree to hand over the known 2,000 pervert Priests as only the tip of the iceberg? Restitution to so many thousands of Global victims? Children sold as Slaves to the Colonies? Children trafficked among the Papacy? Repatriation of Lands stolen? Vatican Bank Gold? The List of all Politicos with Vatican Bank accounts?

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis welcomed President Trump to the cradle of Roman Catholicism on Wednesday, delivering a message of peace even as the pontiff emphasized his role as the world’s moral counterpoint to the president’s nationalist agenda.

The two met in the pope’s private study for nearly half an hour, joined only by an interpreter. The pontiff, in white papal dress and a pectoral cross on a chain around his neck, sat behind a small desk while Trump, in a dark suit and navy striped tie, took the single chair across from him as if interviewing for a job.

After some initial awkwardness — Trump looked somewhat uneasy as he was kept waiting for a few seconds in the Saint Ambrose room before shaking hands with Francis, who was stone-faced at first — the atmosphere soon warmed.

The pair seemed to set aside their differences from last year’s campaign, with Trump appearing both presidential and deferential, while the pope, smiling slightly, seemed to be visually appraising him.

A brief Vatican communique later called the meeting “cordial,” and expressed hope for collaboration with the administration on “health care, education and assistance to immigrants.”...

OWON: At least be informed. How many lying, dying ask for one more day? Such a wide range of consequences. Nothing is worse than seeing patients at a hospital standing outside with an Oxygen tank and mask having another smoke. It's beyond sad to see self-denial on such a scale.

Sure, just about everybody knows that smoking causes lung cancer and respiratory and heart problems. But its adverse effects don’t stop there. Far from it.

“Some people are very health conscious even though they smoke and know a lot about the various problems associated with smoking,” said Dr. John Spangler, professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem and a recognized expert in tobacco use and quitting smoking. “But other people aren’t as informed, so, overall, the less publicized, more unusual effects of smoking are not well known.”

Cigarette smoking inflicts damage throughout the body. The conditions it can cause, contribute to, increase the risk of or worsen include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, gum disease, arthritis and erectile dysfunction. Cigarette smoke does such diverse harm because it contains somewhere between 4,000 and 9,000 different chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic, including around 70 known to be carcinogenic.

“When you smoke, these various chemicals get into the bloodstream, are carried to all parts of the body and go right to the most susceptible cells,” Spangler said...